About Me

I used to work with the Cat Welfare Society for 6 years and really enjoyed my time working with them. I am now taking a break but will continue to blog about cats and other related information! Any views here do not represent the views of CWS.

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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Update on the cats

The TC officer replied this morning. She said that the cats had been taken by another caregiver. She said that she had to have the cats removed 'urgently' as they had been in a bin centre since Saturday.

Now I can understand if she needed the situation handled because it was a matter of some urgency. For example, she could have just said so. However to say the cats have to be removed before 2 pm does not convey a sense of urgency to me - it conveys an ultimatum.

She said that the caregiver she spoke with did not want to take the cats. I'm not sure if she spoke with the same person I spoke to but I got a completely different story.

I told her the point was that four hours was far too short a time to handle a situation. I said that if it had been an urgent situation, she could have said so and we would certainly try our best to react speedily. However I said considering the town council itself has a time frame of several days to respond to an email certainly the same time frame should be applied to caregivers handling complaints?

In addition, while the officer had been speaking to the caregivers, she had not contacted me as was agreed between the TC and ourselves. While she has spoken with the other people involved, she did not contact me and that makes it difficult for me to know what is happening.

Relieved to know the cats are safe in the care of another caregiver.TC should have the courtesy to build up better communication with CWS. This will greatly reduce much stress to Dawn, Rebecca and other who are greatly concern about the missing cats.

But (Dawn) this TC woman is not very cooperative as in she is not doing her best in communicating and liasing with the volunteers and members of the CWS, and you too. Especially you said there is a pre-existing agreement between the TC and the CWS.

Why, she new to the TC or something...??

I am just "not very happy and please" that time and again, these TC people are all the same... all working for the "garmen"...

You know, many of my friends etc told me not to be too indifferent, that there must be "a few good men and women" in "garmen" agencies, but I have yet to encounter one myself.

Recently they were thinking of reviewing their salary, proposing a raise to match the private sector.

dear iwooiblogi so so, so agree with your very factual grouses about these "garmen" people at "garmen" agencies. (have you also noticed those typical stoney poker "garmen" faces so phlegmatically looking at you and your cat-problems?! of course they deserve salary increments and bonuses lah, they are as hardworking and determined to help society get rid of all these feline lives as we are equally into looking at their welfare.) kua kua, can cringe, puke and die right?? errk. just so that you'll know you're not alone, i almost died of sheer frustration while settling some matters (read : waste time) at some "garmen" agency with some "garmen" people yesterday. when i left, i felt very sorry for myself because i pay ERP everyday(now even on sats), i pay this tax and that tax and they still have to hurt my eyes by having those super ugly and cliche mountain posters of how life should be achieved.....yah, right - including culling cats. argh.

We will continue to give these gahmen people a hard run for their salaries but simple asking for our right as HDB residents to be heard. I think some of these officers must be lamenting on the loss of the "good old days" when all they need to do is just dial pest control in response to any complaint on cats.

I think the (main) problem with (all) these "garmen" people working in "garmen" agencies etc, including the town councils is that, they all still have the very very "OLD SCHOOL THINKING", that a "garmen" job is a super iron rice bowl... you hardly can ever loose a job there...

So there goes the service quality, there goes the (correct and positive) working attitude... etc etc

Not exactly "sad to say", but the advantage, or rather working in the private sector, it is always profit first, but to reach that objective, you have to make sure all your services etc are super satifactory to your customers... hence good customer service etc...

But these TCs... haiz... sad lah...

Just imagine if Donald Trump goes into one of these TCs and start restructuring and revamping, man, he will have a big field day saying "You're FIRED!!"

Of course there are some good officers too - having worked with some of them, they are genuinely good. The problem is that often it isn't about solving the problem, it's just about a quick-fix,which doesn't make anyone happy.

I've met 'efficent' and polite TC officers (hougang ave 7) when i thought a cat was trapped in one of their boiler rooms. Although the officers said they couldn't be down during the night, they came almost first thing in the morning and was polite. Of course i wouldn't know if underneath that hides a sneer but on the surface, it was efficent, and 'by the rules'. At least it feels that they are willing to help.